Blackstone Inc. $BX Stock Position Boosted by Machina Capital S.A.S.

Machina Capital S.A.S. boosted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 665.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,991 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 12,163 shares during the period. Machina Capital S.A.S.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,093,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $599,872,000 after purchasing an additional 182,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $581,886,000 after purchasing an additional 117,724 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $168.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 24th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, HSBC decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $179.00 to $178.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.74.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX opened at $146.45 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $107.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $168.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $156.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. Equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 147.43%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were bought at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 2,551,515 shares of company stock valued at $67,038,327 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.